Sunday November 30, 2008
We had a lazy Sunday morning, and the dogs let me go back to bed for an hour or so after taking them out and feeding them. We had another short clicker training session with more progress towards understanding. Then we headed out the door. I wanted to do some VST training with Ethan, and there would be plenty of time for a walk and other adventures for Mocha. So off we went.
The photo on the left is a photo taken during our walk at Sonoma State University. It's a challenge to get both dogs in the photo looking good, as I can't make any sounds to get expression/etc because Mocha will want to come over to me if I do. This was the best I could get at this spot in one of the big parking lots. Mocha looks great, Ethan looks camera shy!
Left:
Mocha hopped right up on this wall and was content to hang out here for a bit, watching the frisbee golfers walk over the track I had laid for Ethan on the other side of the quad. (We were walking while his track was aging. Having them walk across his track was a great training opportunity for us.)
Earlier we passed by the campus pond, and Mocha really wanted to go down to the water, but it's a cement lined pond with steep edges and pretty icky water at that with duck poop all over the place, so I didn't let her get in, and didn't stop for a picture.
One skill I like my tracking dogs to have is to be able to drink out of a sports/squirt bottle. When tracking, I bring a sierra cup along with me so I can make the most use of the water I'm able to carry, but it's nice if the dogs will wet their whistle with a squirt bottle. Mocha was willing to give it a try (don't know if she's done this before) and caught on quickly.
WHAT A CUTE FACE!!!
I thought it would be fun to get a picture of Mocha up against these white flowers in a raised flower bed on SSU campus. Unfortunately, the low flowers in front were Bacopa (hardly visible in the photos) and they've very smelly! Mocha didn't really want to be up there in those smelly flowers (can't say that I blame her!), but she played along long enough for me to get this photo. Isn't she just TOO CUTE???
Okay, I just could NOT resist giving Mocha another little track. There is an undeveloped field with some nice green grass near the parking lot where I had parked at SSU, so I walked over to it and laid a serpentine style track for Mocha. A gradual curve to the right, and then a gradual curve to the left. Small pieces of cheese on the track which was scuff stepped (and easily visible to me so I could help if needed) It was aged about five minutes as I had to walk back over to the van to get her ready to go.
Mocha was looking at me as we walked over to the track, but as soon as I put the harness on her in the vicinity of the start flag, I could hear her start to sniff! I kid you not! I don't know if it was the simple matter of the breeze coming from the direction of the food drops at/near the start, or if she remembered the harness from the time before, but there was no doubt in my mind that she knew what she was going to have the opportunity to do!
I was "bad" and brought my camera with me, knowing it would be fun to have some photos to post. I had to give her more line in order to get far enough back to take pictures, and that made her go faster, and sometimes she skipped a food drop and then turned around to go back and get it. When I stopped mucking about taking photos, she was back to classic tracking style. She recognized when she "missed the curve" and stepped off of the track and was very readable getting back onto the track proper.
She always seems a bit surprised to get to the glove - and after she ate the food out of it (pointy noses are so handy!) I rewarded her for touching the glove with her nose - and that behavior earned her another food treat. She really is a natural at this tracking stuff, even though when we're on our walk she notices everything visually - birds, people, leaves, etc - when asked to focus on what her nose is telling her, she can do so!
When Mocha was done with her track, she got to play with a passing Bichon Frise. He was getting a little rough for her tastes (and the darned leash prevented her from leaving him in her dust), so UP she jumped into my arms. Haha little dog! Take that! (He wasn't mean, just wasn't playing the same sort of dash/dart games that she wanted to play) During their play, she dashed into a pile of leaves and was so cute almost completely covered in brown leaves - but of course my camera wasn't ready, and so the opportunity was lost.
We still had time before Ethan's track was 3 hours old, so I ran and grabbed a bite to eat, and then took Mocha into PetsMart. It was pretty busy, but hardly anyone offered to pet Mocha. She couldn't believe it. "Hi, hi!" she tried to say to everyone in view, but they were all focused on what they were buying. A few people and some store employees fussed over her, and we checked out the toy aisle, etc, but it wasn't nearly as much fun as Western Farm!
I was thinking I might take her in to my work (a 24 hour center) for some of the night shift people to meet her, but she seems pretty tired, so I'm going to give it a miss tonight. Maybe we'll go over there tomorrow night after puppy class. I took a few hours off so we could go to the training building during puppy class (it helps when the instructor is your roommate!). Should be fun!